I can’t say that I’m as impressed with Thune’s newfound spine as Mark is, though. I think Thune is simply very, very scared by the prospect of spending the next five years watching Ellsworth close and seeing replays of his boast that he has the President’s ear and could thus save Ellsworth from the chopping block. So scared, in fact, that he made this rather silly move of changing his tune on Bolton a short time after saying on Hardball that Bolton was exactly what was needed for the UN. Hardly looks like a principled or statesmanlike position. It does make you think this guy’s going nowhere as a Senate leader.

South Dakota needs to face some unpleasant facts. It has three electoral votes (and the Republicans take them totally for granted anyway) and one seat in the House, an overwhelmingly urban and suburban body. The Senate is the only place where South Dakota has equal representation, and we need Senators who know how to accumulate power to use on our behalf. The South Dakota GOP has never produced a Senate GOP leader or a Presidential nominee. Say what you will about their ideology, but the South Dakota Democrats did that twice in 25 years. I think it’s because of the huge disadvantage they have in party registration – they simply have to be more politically talented in order to get there in the first place.

Electing Thune because the President recruited him to run and enthusiastically supported him was a really bad idea. Bush owes him nothing for agreeing to run – Thune’s reward was a Senate seat that he obviously wanted badly. Daschle may have been a thorn in Bush’s side, but he was also in a position to help advance selective items in Bush’s agenda when he chose to do so. He could have made a deal and delivered on it, and Bush knows that. Thune can do is threaten to change his vote, but I agree that it will hurt more than it will help.

Despite his ulterior motives for opting to veto Bolton, Thune’s stock actually went up a notch with me (it couldn’t have fallen, so there was only one way to go) because he’s at least showing that constituent service is a higher priority to him than robotic partisan allegiance. After the 2002 Senate campaign when Thune stood in glassy-eyed awe applauding Bush’s proposal to ki-bosh drought relief for South Dakota ranchers, I would have never thought he’d have the stones to get past his schoolgirl crush on administration orthodoxy long enough to grow a spine. It sure is a pleasant surprise to see the rudimentary development of posture in the man, even though I’m not optimistic it will last.